Barbados’ teenage surfing prodigy, Chelsea Tuach, continues to rock the history books. In March, she became the first Barbadian surfer to win an Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Three Star Junior Pro event when she won the ROXY Pro in Cocoa Beach, Florida.
Two months later, she captured Barbados’ first medal at the International Surfing Associations (ISA) World Junior Surfing Championships, the ‘olympics’ of junior surfing.
In September, she was announced as the Junior Women’s Champion for the ASP North American Pro Junior Surf series, gaining a spot in the most important Junior event of the annual surf Calendar, the ASP Junior World Surfing Championships which brings together the champions from the seven (7) ASP regions – North America, South America, Hawaii, Australasia, Africa, Europe and Japan. This was another first for Barbados.
Not only did Chelsea gain a berth in this, the pinnacle of Junior surfing, but she was touted as one of the stand-out surfers of the event. She progressed easily through the first three rounds of competition with her power, flow and style on the waves, consistently posting scores in the good range.
Her biggest challenge came in the Quarter-final round, when she came up against World Championship Tour (WCT) surfer and the number one seed of the event, Bianca Buitendag from South Africa. Chelsea came out blazing matching Bianca wave for wave in a tense thirty minute battle to take the win in the dying seconds of the heat with a massive, close-out re-entry that stunned not only the number one seed but the huge crowd gathered on the beach.
Chelsea did not find the same form in her semi-final match up with top Hawaiian surfer, Tatiana Weston-Webb and ended equal third overall – still the best result of any Caribbean junior surfer ever.
This finish guarantees Chelsea a seeded position in the Round of 60 in all of the ASP 6 Star events next year, a huge stepping stone for her budding professional career.
“I am elated at this result”, Tuach said after her third place finish. “I want to thank God first for this great blessing, Barbados for its prayers and support, my sponsors ROXY, Dragon, Dakine and especially Red Bull for making this trip possible, and my coach Mike Lamm, without whom I could not have attained this result.”
Chelsea’s next challenge is the Association of Surfing Professional of Puerto Rico (APSPR) Open Women’s Pro event which comes off next weekend in Isabela, Puerto Rico. (PR)
